Raila expresses support for Kalonzo’s idea of joint CORD nominations

September 20, 2016 3:34 pm

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Through his spokesman Dennis Onyango, Odinga indicated that the constituent parties should field candidates on a CORD flag in a similar fashion with that of NARC in 2002 General Election/FILE

By SIMON NDONGA, NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 20 – Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader Raila Odinga has said that he supports the proposal by his Wiper counterpart Kalonzo Musyoka for joint nominations between the parties forming the coalition.

Through his spokesman Dennis Onyango, Odinga indicated that the constituent parties should field candidates on a CORD flag in a similar fashion with that of NARC in 2002 General Election.

He pointed out that in this arrangement, all parties will present candidates for nomination and the overall winner will fly the coalition’s ticket as ODM/ CORD, Wiper/ CORD or Ford Kenya/CORD.

“The coalition will encourage the other parties willing to come on board to support this arrangement that enables them retain their identity while flying the corporate CORD flag,” he stated.

He explained that this arrangement will help the coalition avoid competition between constituent parties that saw them split votes and lose seats in some cases.

Musyoka had earlier hinted at registering CORD as a party in readiness for the General Election next year.

He had said that should this happen, the winner of a joint nomination exercise will use its ticket to vie in next year’s poll.

Kalonzo said the CORD party idea would be modelled along the lines of National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) in 2002 where political parties came together under the NARC umbrella without losing their individual identities.

He said he has discussed the idea with Odinga and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetangula adding that there was plenty of goodwill.

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar who is Wiper party secretary general however insisted the MoU signed between Kalonzo and Odinga in the run-up to 2013 General Election is still valid.

In the MoU it was said that Odinga will run for one term and then hand over the flag to Musyoka.